Project #266: Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis

Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Let’s talk about Maruyama Animation Produce Project Association aka MAPPA. Over the years MAPPA has become one of the best anime studios in Japan, producing high quality anime that everyone can’t help but respect and like. The studio was founded in 2011 by Masao Maruyama the same man who founded Madhouse studios one of the best studios in Japan. Due to the studio suffering financially (it was so bad the studio was only able to produced 3 anime that year along with an OVA of H.O.T.D) which prevented Masao from making the animes he wanted to make and the death of his longtime friend and business partner Osamu Dezaki, he left the studio in 2011 and founded MAPPA a few months later which would allow him to do the work he enjoyed doing. The studio started off small helping with the co-production of other animes such as Kids on the Slope, Teekyu, and Hajime no Ippo. But when 2014 came the studio had its break out year where it produced 3 animes by itself that would go on to help define them. The first was Garo which has now become a staple of the studio. The second was Terror in Resonance which has become Watanabe’s most realistic anime and was hands down my favorite anime from 2014 with it’s spectacular animation, soundtrack, and story. The third was Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis. Also known as Rage of Bahamut, the anime is based off a mobile card game created by Cygames and only available in Japan. There’s really not that much of a story to the game. You just go around collecting and powering up your cards which are either humans, demons, or gods. Naturally, MAPPA had their work cut out for them with this series as it practically gave them nothing to work with in terms of story and everyone had little expectations for this seeing as how it was done by a studio that no one knew that much about and a game everyone was familiar with. Did MAPPA prove their shortcomings with this anime? Let’s find out and take a look at Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis.

Opening and Ending Theme

The opening is “EXiSTENCE” by SiM and it’s easily one of the best headbanging openings I’ve ever seen. I mean it, this opening will have you banging your head for how awesome and energetic it is. The whole opening just gets you hyped and ready for the anime and as the anime progresses the song becomes more appropriate in getting you prepared for the episode. The ending is “Promise Land” by Risa Shimizu. It’s a beautiful song and perfect way to wrap up an episode. Like I said the anime can be quite intense so it’s nice to listen to a song that calms us down and allows us to take in everything that we’ve just watched.

Episodes 1-4

The anime starts off big with this battle of gods, demons, and humans (scene here: https://youtu.be/eqwdtwCJvvY, damn this is hardcore! Way to grab the audience’s attention). We then cut to the present day where our main character the bounty hunter Favaro voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino (Orito from Is this a zombie?) is being chased by another bounty hunter named Kaisar voiced by Tsuyoshi Inoue who holds a personal grudge against Favaro because he stole his family’s fortune. They have a pretty funny and inventive chase through the city with horses, swords, a big wheel, and prostitutes (Michael Bay wishes he could be this creative) and ends in a bar where Favaro shoots Kaisar’s horse with an arrow (that’s dirty animal cruelty) causing it to become startled and running away forcing Kaisar to run after it. After giving Kaisar the slip Favaro goes to catch a bandit where we see the bandit can summon demons but Favaro burns them alive with alcohol, stabs the bandit with a pitch fork, and uses his bounty hunter bracelet to turn the bandit into a small stone tablet (wow that’s a cool way to capture people). After celebrating his victory in town and getting drunk off his ass a woman wearing man clothes (a reverse trap has appeared) approaches him asking him to take her to Heihliem since he’s knows of a shortcut. But before Favaro can give his answer the brother of the bandit he caught earlier comes seeking revenge and summons a giant demon which proves too much for Favaro to fight luckily the woman reveals herself to be a demon and defeats the giant demon while Favaro sneaks from behind and captures the bandit (scene here: https://youtu.be/syJlD6_hhcE, they make a good team). After capturing the bandit Favaro gets knocked out by a barrel and passes out only to wake up the next morning and discover that he has a tail.

In episode 2 the woman from yesterday who we find out is named Amira voiced by Risa Shimizu comes in and tells Favaro that the tail is a contract to make sure he follows through with his promise. She says she’ll remove the tail once Favaro tells her about the shortcut to Heiliem which he really doesn’t know (alright, enjoy having a tail for the rest of your life). The innkeeper sees the tail and accuses Favaro of being a demon in human form (so that’s what they call furries or animal people in their time) and tries to get Kaisar’s help to kill him. Favaro and Amira escape the town by horse where Favaro decides to accompany her on her quest to Heiliem where he’ll wait for his opportunity to kill her and remove the curse (or you could just come clean, admit that you were drunk and lying, apologize, and pray to God or gods in this case that she’ll show mercy and remove the curse). Because the journey will be long and tiring (as is all great journeys in life) they take up bounty hunting jobs in the hopes of earning pay where Favaro sees that trying to kill Amira might not be a good idea. After buying her new clothes they go to the bar to drink and dance to some Latin American influenced music (scene here: https://youtu.be/Z8yLr5z0Co4). They then go to the ocean to gaze into the stars (which are pretty beautiful) where Amira tells Favaro that the reason she wants to go Heiliem so much is because she wants to see her mother (http://youtu.be/Q_znAGsGqMo, shut up). Kaisar sneaks up on them where he too believes that Favaro is a demon and tries to kill him but is stopped by Amira who he becomes smitten with (she’s a demon too man). Favaro uses this distraction to dropkick Kaisar and escape. The next day Favaro sells our Amira to the Holy Knights who are looking for her because she stole the God Key one of the two keys that has the power to awaken a powerful creature onto the world. After Favaro sells out Amira who gets cornered by the knights he tries to leave but the horse has grown attached to Amira and takes Favaro to Amira by force (hi ho Silver awaaaay~). We then see the holy knights trying to use their powers to subdue Amira but it has no effect on her if anything it’s just tickling her (quick! Make her laugh to death). The horse comes in knocking everyone out of the way and dropping Favaro by Amira where he accidently drops his smoke bombs and tries to escape with Amira where they get cornered on a bridge with no escape (http://youtu.be/0s9xeAcn_PU?t=2s, I’ve wanted to use this for so long). Favaro destroys the bridge and they dive down into the water below to escape the knights (scene here: https://youtu.be/Lof3UIb997I).

Episode 3 starts off by showing us that the balance between godlike beings and demon like beings is beginning to fall out of whack (than the Fire Nation attacked) because of the God Key disappearing and stuff. We see how Amira stole the God Key becoming one with it (man, she used one of the keys sealing the strongest monster in the world as a dildo) and in the process lost one of her wings so now she can’t fly anymore. Back on Kaisar’s side of the story, while wondering through the forest he takes a nasty spill and literally gets dragged by a little girl to the foggy town of Nebelville (sounds inviting). Once there the town doctor takes care of his injuries and ask him to protect the town from a group of forest trolls who have been attack the village and eating children. While in the village he befriends Rita the girl who saved him and the daughter of the town’s doctor who doesn’t like her family all that much. Kaisar opens up about his family by saying how he too once hated his father for always pressuring him to follow in his footsteps. He hated him so much that he would stay away from his house just to avoid seeing him. This however changed when his father was on a mission escorting a tribute to the king one day and the tribute got attacked by bandits. Kaisar’s father was blamed for this failure and as punishment he was sentenced to death and his family lost their status which resulted in Kaisar’s mother committing suicide. Kaisar tells her to enjoy the time she has with her family but she just ignores his story and goes away (heart of ice that girl). The next day Kaisar and the rest of the town fight the forest trolls who aren’t trolls at all but instead Favaro and Amira. It turns out that Rita is a necromancer who used a book called Black Bible to turn the citizens of her town into zombies after the village was attacked and destroyed 200 years ago (she aged nicely). Using some rare herb Favaro shows Kaisar the zombie village where he freaks out a little and goes on a rampage killing zombies trying to reach Rita and kill her. When he finally reaches Rita her dad bites her which causes her to drop the book and Favaro destroys the book and captures it since this was part of some bounty. This causes all the zombies to disappear (this was a lovely town of death) and Favaro leaves Kaisar to take care of Rita where rather than kill her he instead keeps her alive since she’s just undead and not a zombie and she begins following him around.

Episode 4 serves as good exposition into our character Favaro. After reaching a town by the sea they find a boat that will take them all the way to Heiliem (alright this anime is gonna be short after all). They talk to the captain named Amon who is actually an old friend of Favaro’s dad and was kind of an uncle to Favaro growing up. As they sail we find out that Favaro comes from a family of bandits (this explains why Amira has a hard time trusting him) where he instead choose to go into business for himself and became a bounty hunter. We also find out that Favaro and Kaisar are childhood friends who grew up together and everything but Favaro and his family stole the offering that was being delivered by Kaisar’s dad which resulted in Kaisar’s life going to hell. This also resulted in the death of Favaro’s dad. After getting the offering he and the other bandits discovered that the treasure was cursed by a demon who came to life and killed everyone with Amon being the only survivor of the massacre thanks to Favaro’s dad who protected him. Kaisar and Rita also find a ship going to Heiliem but the sailors turn on them and try to rob them (where is the trust in this anime?). Kaisar is able to defend himself and when Rita gets attacked (big mistake guys) she kills them all and turns them all into her legion of ghouls. Back on Favaro and Amira’s side of the story, the ship gets attacked by a giant crab (boys! We’re having crab tonight). Amira defends the ship from the crab where Favaro’s tail gets revealed to Amon and the crew where they’re not surprise because it turns out Amon is a demon himself (what a not so obvious twist). After the demon from the treasure killed off Favaro’s dad and the other bandits Amon became the demon’s servant in exchange for his life. They capture Favaro and Amira where they plan to kill them but just when they’re about to, Kaisar and Rita’s ship full of ghouls rams the ship (ghouls ahoy captain) and the ghouls overrun the ship allowing Favaro to escape and have his one on one battle with Amon on top of the ship. Favaro manages to outwit Amon and cause him to fall into the mouth of the crab which returned to attack the ship. With Amon defeated Favaro must now have his fight with Kaisar where the two can finally settle their differences (or not). Lightning shoots out from a flying demon fortress that strikes Kaisar and Amira and captures them leaving Favaro and Rita behind to end the episode.

Episodes 5-8

In episode 5 we find out that the person who captured Amira and Kaisar is Azazel, Lucifer’s second in command of the demons who’s been tasked with finding and retrieving Amira to find out who’s pulling her strings because Lucifer believes someone like Amira couldn’t have pulled off such a successful heist alone (in his defense this does seem like a two-man job). They torture her but get no answers and even tell the naïve Kaisar everything that’s going on (good, maybe now he’ll be a little more cooperative and less annoying. Yeah I didn’t mention it before because it didn’t bother me all that much but Kaisar’s ignorance to this whole situation can be quite annoying. Luckily, it’s kept to a minimum and not focused on all that much but still when it shows up it’s quite annoying). Favaro and Rita get Bacchus a god who Favaro takes his jobs from (he’s also a drunk), to help them by lending them his flying chariot. He refuses to help them saying he wants to see just how serious Favaro is willing to go to save Amira (well he’s holding a knife up to a god’s neck so I say he’s pretty serious). Favaro does the unthinkable and destroys his bounty hunter bracelet meaning he can no longer be a bounty hunter anymore or ever again and is now nothing more than a common thief (wasn’t he always that to begin with?). Bacchus helps them by flying them to the gate of Cocytus the demon capital in Sword Valley. Once there Favaro and Rita sneak their way onto Azazel’s weird and ugly flying fortress where they find Amira and Favaro gets attacked by Kaisar who was set free by Azazel for his own amusement (dance monkey dance). The fight between the two gets stopped by Rita throwing her hand at Kaisar to stop him (hey Kaisar, I heard you needed a hand so here you go). As Azazel’s ship passes through the demon gate the gate gets destroyed by the Orleans Knights led by the saint Jeanne a champion among humans ordered by the angels to find and retrieve the God Key. She has her soldiers lay down a barrage of attacks on the fortress while inside the fortress Azazel sends Pazuzu to capture Amira where Favaro and Kaisar set aside their differences to take him down and escape with Favaro promising to face Kaisar fairly without running away when this is all over (http://youtu.be/a9U_C_q6WcU). They defeat Pazuzu by crushing him with a giant gear and escape to the deck of the ship only to be confronted by Azazel who just happens to be the demon responsible for killing Favaro’s dad (what are the odds of meeting him here of all times?). Azazel ties up the others to make his way to Amira where she activates her hidden powers which forces Azazel to retreat for the time being. The group escapes in the nick of time by escaping the fortress on a zombie wyvern (Rita’s powers kick so much ass) and fly off with Amira still weak.

At the start of episode 6 the group gets captured by Jeanne and the Orleans Knights where they get taken to the capital of Anatae and presented before King Charioce XIII (who has a braided beard). We find out that Amira isn’t just a demon, she’s also an angel and has the ability to hide her demon presence from humans and amulets (cool). Three angels appear before the king and the knights to tell them that Bahamut is awaken. Remember that hardcore awesome scene at the beginning of the series? It turns out that was Bahamut wreaking havoc on the world. Bahamut is a powerful dragon who is neither demon nor angel (so he’s human than) who nearly destroyed the world eons ago that is until Zeus and Satan gave their lives and became the God Key and Demon Key to seal Bahamut away for all of eternity but now that Amira has absorbed the God Key and become the key herself the angels believe that her unstable emotions might be causing the seal to weaken and that someone in the shadows is controlling her actions (the conductor if you will). The angels have the humans keep Amira and the others in the city hoping to use this chance to find out who’s really behind the resurrection of Bahamut. Favaro tells Amira he’s done working with her saying he wants to live rather than die upsetting Amira and getting smacked for being a liar (he had a face she couldn’t trust). She’s then put into a room where’s she locked inside under guard. That night they go to a banquet where Favaro and Kaisar have a standoff where Kaisar isn’t sure what to believe in anymore (he can’t bring himself to kill his own best friend). The two have a short duel with a fork and knife (well this just got silly) where it gets interrupted by Rita who tells them that Amira left her room so they go looking for her. While looking for her Favaro runs into Jeanne in a holy temple where people offer prayers to the holy knight who is said will come forth and defeat Bahamut should the beast ever rise again. Humans believe Jeanne is that holy knight (well she did kill three Titan Ghouls single handedly so I wouldn’t be surprise. Scene here: https://youtu.be/fnSCA0JpnAc) and will one day save the world from Bahamut (or die trying). Favaro really doesn’t care saying it’s got nothing to do with him (oh yes it does) but Jeanne says that in life there’s a purpose behind every meeting. Meanwhile, Amira gets lead to the castle by a cloak figure (the conductor appears at last) who reveals himself to be Lavalley the right hand man of Jeanne and who Amira believes is her father.

In episode 7 Azazel attacks Anatae with an army of demons to capture Amira (tonight we dine on human soup). As you would expect it’s a grand battle between humans and demons but we instead focus on Amira who has reunited with Favaro and the others, has regained her energy, and sneaks into the kitchen to eat and drink (I’m sorry but can we focus on the LARGE SCALE BATTLE HAPPENING OUTSIDE THE CITY WALLS? Because that seems to be more interesting than what’s going on with Amira getting drunk off her cute ass. Scene here: https://youtu.be/LvMj-tux6wY). She passes out from drinking too much and Azazel enters the room prepared to capture her. How he get passed Jeanne you ask? Well Jeanne is busy fighting another powerful demon (scene here: https://youtu.be/GzwJcQORWoU). Favaro tells Kaisar to take Amira and run while he takes on Azazel alone (powerful demon lord vs weak but silly and skilled protagonist. This should be an amusing match). At first it’s just Favaro by himself but Kaisar shows back up to him fight saying he wants to avenge his father now that he knows Azazel is the one responsible for killing him instead of Favaro (took you long enough Kaisar). The two don’t have any luck fighting him since normal human weapons don’t hurt him (than why is he dodging their attacks if they don’t hurt him. Be like Alucard, take the hits and get back up like nothing happened). When the two are cornered Kaisar distracts Azazel long enough for Jeanne to attack him faraway with her holy lance (the power of Christ compels you sucker). She hits him but Azazel teleports away at the last minute (oh you coward get back here and die. You little chicken shit). The rest of the demons retreat and Amira regains consciousness where she wonders away from Rita and winds up in the temple of the holy knight where she begins to see visions of Bahamut and faints.

In episode 8 Favaro and Kaisar are knighted for their bravery in fighting the demons and are given the title of knights (Kaisar, yes. Favaro, I don’t think so). Jeanne also receives a holy sword from the angels for her valor and bravery in facing the demons much to the king’s shock who thought he would receive the sword (why? You did nothing. I didn’t see you out there fighting the demons or commanding the troops). Later on the king is slipped a poison which causes him to hallucinate, scream like a girl (I’m being serious), and get the idea in his head that Jeanne plans to kill him and take over the throne (and in his defense it’s pretty possible. She’s strong, has the trust of the people, loyalty of the knights, and has all the makings of a leader. Now that I think about it, she would make a better king or queen than the current king). Azazel gets killed by Beelzebub another demon loyal to Lucifer who wants to use the God key to revive Satan. Back with Amira and Favaro they sneak into Lavalley’s room who Amira believes to be her father. It turns out he’s not Amira’s real father (Maury! Maury! Maury!) but instead a loyal soldier of Amira’s mother Nicole an angel who fell in love with a demon and gave birth to Amira (no wonder she’s OP). Because of this unholy act Nicole was banned from Heaven and force to wonder the Earth where the demons stole Amira, brainwashed her to steal the God key from the angels, and sped up her growth to make her look like a young maiden in her early 20s when really she’s just 5 years old (this explains why she’s a bit childish at times). Lavalley tells Amira that her mother went to the demon realm to save her but was captured and is being held captive in Prudisia, the Valley of Demons. After hearing all of this Amira decides to go to Prudisia and free her mother but Favaro says he’s going to stay behind believing that he’s fulfilled his promise to her and can now get rid of his demon tail once and for all. But because of Favaro’s luck and the fact that the anime loves messing with him he gets roped into going with Amira and they sneak out of the castle via waterway.

Episodes 9-12

In episode 9 Favaro and Amira make it out of the waterway and arrive in a magical forest (filled with green light, giant trees, nature, and animals who for some reason have money on them). Kaisar and a few of his men find them and try to take them back to the kingdom but in truth Kaisar is there to actually help them on their journey. Both sides have a fight with each other where Favaro, Kaisar, and Amira get transported to another dimension where they meet the mythical forest dragon (yeah they don’t tell us his name) the observer of time (man your job is boring). After Favaro removes Bahamut’s barb from the forest dragon the dragon tells them that the seal placed on Bahamut is weakening all because of Amira (oh sure let’s all blame the sweet and innocent 5 year old girl trapped in a teenager’s body). If things continue as they are Bahamut will reawaken and destroy the world once again with everyone in it. The dragon tells them there is a way to avoid this disaster and it requires Amira to stay within his dimension forever where she’ll never be able to see her mother ever again (so it’s either live an alternate dimension with a dragon saving the world or bring Judgment Day to the world killing all of us but seeing your mom for one last time. Please for the love of God make the right choice). Amira breaks down from all of this as she really is unsure of what to do (again, 5 year old girl here who just found out that the only way to keep her mom and friends safe is to stay from them. How would you feel?). Favaro not accepting this speaks up and says that they’ll change the fate of the world and prevent its destruction from happening. After saying all of that Favaro somehow opens up a portal back to their and go through where they finally reach Purdisia. But before Favaro went through the portal the forest dragon tells him that if Bahamut and Amira are united they will fuse together and Bahamut will then be unstoppable. If Favaro seriously wants to save the world he must kill Amira. In our B plot someone has a killed a bunch of guards in the castle and the king (who screamed like a little girl again) believes that Jeanne tried to assassinate him and orders her execution. As Jeanne is imprisoned she gets approached by a mysterious cloaked figure who wants Jeanne to turn to the dark side for some reason. Rita explores the castle and finds a mysterious lab where someone performed a demon ritual and gets caught by the cloaked figure where she escapes.

At the start of episode 10 Jeanne is being burned at the stakes where she sees the delusions from the cloaked figure at how the angels have betrayed her and how they never really cared about the people (on top of that she witness the guards killing innocent people. Her mind is reaching her breaking point). She finally decides to turn to the dark side and becomes a demon where she transforms the sword she got from the angels into a demon sword, summons a dragon, and flies off (scene here: https://youtu.be/94LB3KTGQMI. You’re going the wrong way, the king is in the other direction). Bacchus sees all of this (sober for once) and gets approached by Rita who wants him to take her to where the others are. Along the way they run over Azazel who’s still alive (well after being hit by a chariot I doubt it) and try to get answers out of but he refuses to talk (run him over again). They reach in agreement where he’ll tell them everything if they take him to Abos. Back with our three main characters they arrive unknowingly into Heileim where they get confronted by Amira’s teacher Martinet the cloaked figure who turned Jeanne into a demon (and looks like the missing member of KISS). It gets revealed that he’s working for Beelzebub who wants to take over the world (http://youtu.be/X8u7px_GzWQ) and he has set into motion a master plan to fulfill his wish (get ready to have your mind fucked). It turns out Amira isn’t Nicole’s child but instead a vessel created to be a clone of Nicole that Beelzebub created to steal the God Key from the angels. All of the memories she’s had of her and Nicole are all just false memories given to her by Martinet to give her the drive she needed to travel and search for Nicole which would lead her back to Beelzebub. Amira not knowing what to do goes to Nicole and hugs her where the two combine and become the key that will release Bahamut. Favaro tries to trick them but Martinet sees through his trick and French kisses Favaro (that’s a lot of tongue) and gives Favaro the demon potion which turns Favaro into a demon.

In episode 11 Favaro turns into a demon where the only thing changing is the color of his eyes, his hair gets a little darker and he gets tiny horns in the form of his hair (and surprisingly this transformation works for him. Sometimes it’s the little changes that work instead of the big changes). Kaisar gets tossed off the floating rock they’re on only to get picked up by Bacchus and Rita. While that’s going Jeanne attacks the angels keeping Bahamut sealed killing Uriel and Raphael with ease leaving only Michael to take her on. Back with the others Rita gives Kaisar a medicine ball which will turn Favaro back to normal and they fly to Beelzebub’s ship with Azazel deciding to join them after a bit of convincing from Kaisar. As they make their way to Beelzebub’s ship Jeanne and Michael show up still fighting and Rita tries to use her potion on Jeanne but the ball gets deflected by Bacchus’ duck while he was flying (screwed over by a duck). Luckily, Michael catches the ball and has Jeanne swallow it returning her back to normal but sadly dying after taking a sword to the chest (she was going to use an arrow to the knee but she didn’t have Favaro’s arrow gun). They arrive on the ship where Azazel takes on Beelzebub, Bacchus takes on Martinet, and Kaisar takes on demon Favaro where instead of feeding him the medicine he just shoots him with an arrow presumably killing him (you know you had the medicine on you right? You could have easily saved him). After Kaisar defeats Favaro, Lavalley shows up (where the hell did he come from?) claiming that it’s all over but in truth he’s a traitor. He pushes Kaisar off the ship (man this is like the fourth time in this episode he’s fallen off of something) and as the ship approaches Bahamut the key goes to him and breaks the seal of Bahamut returning him to the world (and the dumbest part about this is as the key is making its way to Bahamut all the angels, demons, and gods start to show up and they don’t do anything to stop it when they could of easily stopped it. The demons I can understand why they don’t wanna stop it but the gods and angels do nothing to stop they just watch it pass right over them all the while staring at it as if it was a flying pizza in the sky or something).

In the final episode Bahamut is revived (about time. They’ve been building this up since episode 1) and I’m not gonna lie he looks pretty intimidating. Beelzebub begins to gloat about how he controls Bahamut and will use Bahamut’s power to take over the world but Bahamut has different plans and kills Beelzebub with one fire blast (this is almost the equivalent of Loki getting his ass owned by The Hulk in The Avengers movie). Bahamut than proceeds to go on a rampage destroying everyone humans, demons, angels, gods, and anything in-between. We find out that Lavalley’s is actually Martinet and his real name is Gilles de Rais a shape-shifting sorcerer who has been the conductor behind everything that’s happened in this anime (wow all of this just to see the end of the world. How messed up is this guy?). Kaisar tries to fight but his sword has no effect on Gilles and he has Kaisar take on Favaro who despite taking an arrow to the chest is still alive (physics be damned). So the two fight, Kaisar gets his left hand that has his bounty bracelet cut off and Favaro gets within range of Gilles where he uses it to capture Gilles because it turns out Favaro is back to normal. Yep, Kaisar put the antidote into the arrow last episode and they came up with this fake fight to fool Gilles and trap him (effective plan but I doubt the hand chopping was a part of it). After Gilles is defeated Favaro and Kaisar climb on top of Bahamut where Favaro delivers the blow slaying Bahamut and sending it to another dimension. Before leaving he has one last moment with Amira (scene here: https://youtu.be/M66vZP2imLM). After that scene a half a year has gone and things are just starting to return to normal. Kaisar gets his hand back, we see that Favaro is a bounty hunter again and still alive, and the anime ends like it began with Favaro and Kaisar riding off.

Final Thoughts

So that was Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis and it’s great. What I thought was going to be a mediocre and forgettable show wound up being a riveting and enjoyable show to watch from beginning to end. It’s amazing how MAPPA took a mobile card game with little to no plot and created something amazing to watch. Favaro is easily the best character in this anime. He’s kind of like Jack Sparrow, he’s just such an interesting and deep character that you can’t help but love him. He may act like he doesn’t care but deep down he has a big heart who cares about the people and friends in his life and will risk his life to help them. Kaisar can have his annoying parts but at time he’s a character who you admire and respect. He’s a textbook knight who values honor and respect above everything else. He recognizes his mistakes from the past, learns from them, and moves on with his life. His interactions with Favaro are great as their personalities just clash with each other perfectly and their chemistry with each other is great. They’re the worst of enemies but the best of friends. Amira is a simple character but her backstory is pretty sad and once again her relationship with Favaro is cute and enjoyable, especially when you find out she’s really a 5 year old girl in the body of an adult. The relationship that the two develop is like that of a big brother looking after his sister and no matter what he does, he can’t bring himself to leave her alone because of how much he cares for her. The rest of the side characters are good and for the most part well-developed. They each have their own unique design that distinguishes them from the other and their own personality. Rita was cool, I how she uses her powers and her relationship with Kaisar is similar to that of Favaro and Amira. Jeanne was a kickass character in that she’s carrying the burden of saving the world on her back but taking it all in strive and rising to the task.

The animation is stunning. You really do feel like you’ve been transported to another world. The backgrounds are well flourished and detailed is put into the smallest of things. Everything just sounds and feels so real here. From the sparks of swords clashing to the dust and flying of rocks from magic attacks to the radiant aura of angels and demons to the sound and appearance of dragons, everything just looks great. While the fight scenes aren’t flashy and basic, they still look good and show the power difference between each species. While humans have excellent fighting skills, their weapons just aren’t a match for a high-ranking demon and as a result they get easily overpowered by them and have no choice but to go on the defensive to stay alive. Demons are cocky and over-confident in their abilities and overestimate their opponents which in turn lead to their downfall. Angels and gods are majestic and fight with a hint of tact and grace. The only downside this anime has is that it can be slow and boring in the first episodes but once you get to episode 5 or 6 the anime really thoughts to pick up and takes you on a ride you’ll enjoy as the action starts to pick up, things start to get revealed, twists are here and there, and of course the characters interact off each other perfectly.

Final Score

The final score for Bahamut Genesis is a 8/10. It’s a fantastic anime that takes a mobile card game and turns into an epic tale. MAPPA did a great job with this series and I can’t wait to check out their other story Virgin Soul which is a direct sequel to this anime in the future. For now, there are a few things I must tend to. 7 of them to be exact. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.

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